Fixing Fae Problems

by Isa Medina

  Then, as if the Universe had to prove me wrong, a solid, inky mass

  fell on my head and arm.

  My cursing was cut short by Greenie’s dip into the golden pool.

  We landed in a rocky cavern illuminated by soft Faerie light. Lockhart collapsed against me, and I almost lost hold of the bag. The goo-pet slid from my arm onto Greenie, but he didn’t seem to mind. How the heck had it hitched a ride from Lord Velei’s house without us noticing?

  I heard Aidan’s boots hit the ground of the cavern, then felt Lockhart dismount clumsily and with a few curses.

  The goo-pet dropped to the floor, slid to the nearest wall, then made its way to the ceiling. Wonderful.

  “Maddie?”

  I supposed it would’ve been too much to ask for Greenie to lower himself. Besides, he had been a good boy—who was I to steal his main source of entertainment?

  I passed the bag to Aidan and awkwardly slid-slash-fell down Greenie’s torso. The mirth in the hound’s green eyes when he craned his

  neck to watch conveyed his appreciation of the Maddie attempts dismounting show.

  With a small thud, Lockhart half-fell, halflowered himself to sit on the ground.

  “I’m okay,” he said, lifting a hand as if Aidan or I had shown concern.

  Which we hadn’t

  Aidan passed me the bag and sat by Lockhart. I guessed I was the group’s official bag-carrier—possibly Aidan’s attempt at keeping my hands busy so I didn’t mess around with anything else.

  I dropped opposite them, waiting expectantly. Aidan had brought us to the small cavern with the portal we had used to meet Lord Velei, and though the portal itself threw off the soft light of Faerie, I hoped whatever Aidan had done to stop Lord Velei from reopening it after we had stolen his blood was still in effect.

  But it had to be, otherwise Aidan wouldn’t be simply sitting on the

  floor, all serious and thoughtful as if a hundred different plans were rushing through his mind.

  For his part, Lockhart appeared a lot more alert. If he was wondering where we were, he didn’t show it—had he used this cavern be-fore, too? Or was he refusing to show he was at a disadvantage?

  Greenie lay on the floor, his tail bumping rhythmically against my leg.

  “Can you do something?” Lockhart said in irritation.

  “About?” I asked.

  He pointed at the ceiling. “That.”

  The goo-pet hovered over our heads, doing its strange purring-rumbling noise.

  “What do you want me to do? You’re the sorc, you do something.”

  “He doesn’t want to harm a creature from Lord Velei’s house,” Aidan said smoothly.

  Lockhart glowered at him.

  Aidan looked at me. “It wants the tooth.”

  “Lockhart?”

  “Wow,” the sore said, floored. “I do hate you.”

  I cackled then took the tooth out of my pocket and tossed it at the goo-pet, aiming a little away. The goo-pet lunged and caught it right be-fore it bounced off the rock. A new, softer purring sound replaced the annoying rumble.

  “Your turn,” | told Aidan. “How did you escape?”

  “T think I’d rather hear your version first,” he said. “How did you end up in that room?”

  I noticed he didn’t call it “my basement,” not wanting to disclose the location in front of Lockhart in case ] hadn’t mentioned it either. That bit of trust in my intelligence filled me with enough warmth to last a snowstorm. And for once, I] was going to prove him right.

  “Someone went after Lockhart, and we had to nun,” I said.

  “Because of you,” Lockhart said with venom in his voice.

  “I told you, no way someone followed me.”

  “There is no other way they would’ve known where I was.”

  “Maybe someone followed you from your shop, ever thought of that?”

  “ps

  “Children, please,” Aidan interjected.

  Lockhart looked like he wanted to set the world on fire. In an impressive act of self-control, he reined his feelings in and said in a more or less even tone, “Your new recruit decided to ambush me at my home when we found ourselves under attack by unknown forces.”

  Aidan assessed me. It was hard to tell from his expression, but | thought I caught a glimpse of worry in those eyes of his. Brown eyes, so we were still more on the surface than Faerie.

  “We’re okay,” I said. “We escaped through his—”

  A tooth fell in my lap, startling me. The loud rumbling began anew. Lockhart opened his mouth.

  “I know, I know,” I said before he could speak. I tossed the tooth upward, barely taking aim. The happy noises returned. “As I was say-ing, we escaped through his Faerie garden.”

  “And?” Aidan glanced at the goo-pet.

  “It apparently hitched a ride while we were in Lord Velei’s house,” I answered.

  Aidan closed his eyes, still as a statue—perhaps running a systems check on his ears, perhaps pondering the disadvantages of throttling me in front of Lockhart. But when he opened his eyes, I caught a hint of…laughter?

  Maybe the Council had tortured Aidan. Or maybe I had finally bro-ken him. Before I could ponder this further, he spoke again, no joviality to be found in his tone. “And you ended up in Lord Velei’s house because…”

  I pointed accusingly at Lockhart. “His garden only has one portal,

  and whoever was after us locked us in. He spell-ported us into the

  nearest portal, which was in Lord Velei’s mansion.”

  “Any reason you thought ‘ambushing’ Lockhart in his house was a good idea?” Aidan asked casually.

  Lockhart sent me a look of triumph.

  “First of all, I didn’t”—I air quoted—“ambush him. I politely asked him about the person who hired him to put the spell on the box.”

  Lockhart snorted and showed Aidan his bloodied forearm. “Does this look like politely asking?”

  Aidan tilted his head, studying me closely. “The dagger?”

  I shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “T assume it didn’t work?”

  “Not—” Another tooth. Another toss in the air. 1 refused to admit how comfortable I was becoming to the whole tossing teeth thing. “Not quite.”

  Aidan tumed his attention to Lockhart. “Why is that, ] wonder?”

  The sore’s features smoothed into nonchalance. “I will tell you when

  I get the Skull.”

  “Your client wants you dead. Don’t you think it would serve you bet-ter if we worked together?” Aidan asked.

  “That’s what I said,” I chimed in.

  Lockhart remained impassive. “And like I said, I can—”

  The reason for Lockhart’s reticence suddenly dropped into place.

  “Oh, my God,” I exclaimed.

  Aidan snapped his attention to me. “What?”

  I started laughing—I couldn’t help myself.

  “Maddie,” Aidan intoned in a severe warning. Lockhart looked so offended it made me laugh even harder.

  “He doesn’t know,” I wheezed.

  “What?”

  “He doesn’t know who hired him!”

  Aidan’s stern countenance cracked into a slow smile.

  Lockhart’s mouth tightened so hard I knew he was imagining new

  and creative ways in which to crush me to death. “It was all done through a handler,” he ground out. “And no, I haven’t been able to get hold of him since yesterday. And yes, I’ve tried hard.”

  The handler had likely read the writing on the wall and disappeared so fast after the supposed attack on Lockhart yesterday, we were never going to find him.

  “Can’t you doa spell to help?” I asked.

  Lockhart shook his head. “Nothing to spell. Everything was done online—payments, instructions, everything. I got the money into my account and dropped the box in a locker at the Ark.”

  Aidan and I exc
hanged glances. Whoever it was had truly planned it down to the last detail.

  “We could try tracking the bank transaction?” I suggested.

  “It will take us nowhere,” Aidan said. “If they took this much effort to remain anonymous, they wouldn’t have messed up something so

  simple as a bank account. Was this a new client?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you had no qualms on taking on the job?”

  Lockhart grimaced. “I trust my handler—trusted. He’s brought me good clients before, and everything checked out fine. The memory spell was complicated, but not dangerous. It wasn’t like I was dooming any-one to an eternity in Hell or anything.”

  “Yeah, well, it sucked pretty bad,” I retorted sharply.

  “And it had the added bonus of giving you an opportunity to bargain for something with whoever came asking for a potion,” Aidan added.

  Lockhart nodded sagely. “Exactly. An excellent deal, in all.”

  “Except that now you’re on the run and you have no clue who wants to kill you,” Aidan said dryly.

  “Eh, it happens.”

  “Really?” I] asked, genuinely curious. “Is that why you have several

  safe houses?”

  “Gotta be careful, always.”

  I eyed Aidan. “Do you have several safe houses, too?”

  He held my gaze. “Of course.”

  My mom and I definitely needed to up our oh, crap emergency plans. Or like make one to begin with.

  “So, now you know what happened to us. What happened to you?” I asked of Aidan.

  “The Council allowed me to go.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that. They are still conducting their investigation, and I am to wait for their decision.”

  I guessed there was more to the story, but he didn’t want to explain in front of Lockhart. “What do we do now?”

  They both glanced up, so I followed. A tooth hit me on the nose.

  I had always wanted a cat, but my mom was allergic. Careful what

  you wish for, I thought gloomily as ] retrieved the tooth and threw it to

  the goo-pet with a little more force than necessary. It didn’t mind in the least.

  “We need to figure out who this person is,” Aidan said, stating the obvious. Coming from him, it was endearing rather than patronizing. He addressed Lockhart next. “Whoever it is has enough resources to send people after you, not to mention covering their tracks so expertly.”

  “But they’ve been going after the Institute for a while,” I said, “so we’re back to ‘why now?” I mulled my own question. “Perhaps whoever it is has enough resources for one attack, and otherwise has to keep on the down low. Chipping here and there but nothing overt.”

  “Something forced their hand?” Lockhart supplied.

  “When did you get the order for the box?” Aidan asked.

  “A week ago.”

  “That thing I took from Faerie?” ] asked Aidan, thinking of the Keeper.

  “Unlikely. He wouldn’t have let the information spread. And this all

  has been building up for a while, long before you entered the picture.”

  “We still think they’re going for the other stuff I took?”

  Aidan’s tone sharpened. “So, you did take it”

  “Yup. I don’t have it with me, though.”

  Aidan smiled slightly. “I would hope not.”

  “Would you two like some secret ink for your coded communi-cations?” Lockhart drawled. “I sell one for cheap at the store.”

  We paid him no attention.

  “If what forced their hand was an item in that collection, maybe they searched for it in the black market,” I ventured. “We could figure out who has looked for what in the past couple of years and go from there.”

  Aidan tapped his knee. “It’s a strong possibility.” He then addressed Lockhart. “Do you have any contacts that can shed any light on artifact seekers?”

  Lockhart looked dubious and completely unsurprised at the grand

  reveal of our hidden topic. Maybe we did need some of that invisible ink. “I have some, but I mostly deal with spells and magic items, not artifacts.”

  “It’s a different side of the same market,” Aidan clarified for me.

  “I know who we can ask,” I said proudly, remembering what Kane had told me a while back. “We can go to the Wishing Well. They keep a wish list of their clients’ special orders—artifacts they’re specifically looking for. If this person is doing all of this because of one or two artifacts, they’d have made sure to add themselves to all these lists, in case the artifacts resurfaced before the Institute got hold of them. If we look at the people who want an artifact similar to the ones at the Institute, we’ll be able to narrow our list a lot.”

  I was so proud of my deductive process I could burst.

  Aidan’‘s smile widened, as ifhe read my mind. “Be that as it may be, there is no way Miller will hand over his client list. We don’t have a

  good working relationship. I can’t ask.”

  “Of course not,” I said, knowingly. “But he can.”

  We looked at Lockhart. He appeared taken aback at first, then sharp with understanding.

  “We will share all information?” he asked.

  “About the person’s identity? Yes.”

  Lockhart grinned. “Then yes. Yes, ] can ask.”

  9

  Aidan refused to show his face in the public areas of the Hub, in case someone recognized him—which told me worlds about why he had used the cellar’s portal to get out of his apartment building—and he

  didn’t trust Lockhart to go alone, willing as the sore was.

  That meant we had to pile on top of Greenie and travel to the Bowels of Hell.

  It was official, my hound was now a three-person mount. Three-person and a bit. The goo-pet dropped on top of us and settled around Greenie’s neck. The thing was probably having the time of its life.

  This time, however, the sorc was prepared for the ley lines and used his magic to dampen the overwhelming effect they had on him. He was still stuck between me and Aidan on the trip, though—Aidan’s paranoia far surpassed my own.

  We landed in my home away from home. In a way, this abandoned

  office room in the Bowels of Hell was my safe house. The thought

  cheered me up, and I wanted to round on Aidan and tell him, “See? I’m all grown up with my secret places, too!”

  Instead, I got off Greenie and patted him encouragingly. Aidan and Lockhart shook their lingering dizziness from the ley lines travel, and I ushered them out of the room as fast as possible. Before we left, Aidan picked a phone and a potion from his duffel bag.

  Spare burner phone—another thing to add to my future go-bag.

  “We’re in the basement?” Lockhart asked, then seemed to immediately regret the question.

  I took pity on him and swallowed a duh. “Yup.”

  “You know your way out?” Aidan asked warily, no doubt remembering our latest adventures in here. Had it really been only a bit over a month ago? It felt like our first fateful encounter had happened a life-time ago, Aidan was such a fixture in my life now.

  “Yup.” I brought them to the freight elevator and produced Kane’s

  keycard. The one I had never returned—at first because I had been too

  busy with the new job, and later because it was a useful item, and Kane had never called about it.

  Luckily, it still worked—I wasn’t sure I could actually find any of the stairs leading out of the place—and we piled inside. The trip to the sec-ond floor took seconds, and since the freight elevator opened into the service hallways, we encountered no one on our way to the back of the Wishing Well.

  Aidan’s phone said it was early evening, and again, | felt that strange disconnect from time. The day had lasted for a year…and it had been only yesterday that I had been spelled and nearly lost my memories.

 
I stuck my foot out, and Lockhart almost face-planted on the floor.

  “Seriously?” he demanded, outraged.

  My mouth curved into a benign arch.

  He glowered and kept walking, putting Aidan between us. Hah.

  Aidan and I waited by the stairs nearest to the Wishing Well while

  Lockhart went on to knock at the store’s back door. We couldn’t see or hear from our position, and I hoped the sore wasn’t about to backstab us. It had been a while since anyone had backstabbed me; I hoped I wasn’t due for another one.

  “You think he’ll tell us what he learns from Miller?” I asked.

  “It’s in his best interests,” Aidan answered. “Now that we know he has no idea who hired him, using us to figure out who it is works to his advantage.”

  The plan was for the sorc to appear interested in a rare artifact—he probably was in several similar lists looking for news of the Skull—and see where Miller kept his lists, so we could go in later and take a look.

  It was a simple plan that required no magic, which was good because Miller made all his part-Fae clients take a potion that rendered their magic null for a period of time before doing any serious business. It was an expensive potion, but then, so was getting robbed.

  Aidan leaned against the wall by my side, our arms touching.

  I peeked at his face. “How are your wounds?”

  “Healing. I got them treated at the Council’s building.”

  “Why did they let you go so easily?”

  “Tracking spell.”

  My eyes widened. “How—”

  “Later.”

  “Okay.”

  He appeared surprised that I wasn’t going to press the issue, but I was too happy knowing he didn’t mean to ditch me right away to allow my curiosity to take lead. For now, anyway. Later, when we were truly alone…oh, man.

  Lockhart reappeared a few short minutes later.

  “Come,” he said before we could speak.

  We followed him into the Wishing Well and through the back room with its shelves of antiques to the entrance of the store’s real Fae stuiT

  room.

  “He sent his assistant off for half an hour, so we got a bit of time,” Lockhart informed us, a little breathless with excitement.